Written by

Richard Wolf
| USA TODAY

If the country is rushing headlong toward full-throated endorsement of same-sex marriage, the Supreme Court apparently didn't get the memo.

Over two days of oral arguments on what has been described as the civil rights issue of the 21st century, the justices spent more time addressing mundane matters of states' rights and judicial standing than threshold issues of equality and morality.

The result still may be at least incremental progress for the gay rights movement, but it's likely to come more with a whimper than a bang -- and with substantial regrets about the way the two cases were ...